White Lake 69.2

S - 11,000 yards
B - 108.2 miles
R - 16.6 miles (23 miles ish in reality)

Time - 10.5 hours

Not a lot to report on this week as my volume was quite low, due mostly to the fact that I raced on Sunday and raced again on Saturday.  The blister issue that appeared after NOLA, then went away, then came back again after the Morganton Biathlon on Sunday was in full force this whole week, really limiting my running and even to a certain extent my biking.  It was quite painful all week and I was hesitant to even do White Lake on Saturday as I was worried it would worsen the situation considerably.  As race day approached, however, it became slightly more manageable and I figured if I got off the bike in the race and it hurt too much I could always stop.  Anyways, on to the good stuff...

White Lake Half (err, 69.2) Race Report

Andrew picked me up at Scott's house and away we headed to the magical land of White Lake, NC.  The drive was mostly uneventful and we arrived with more than enough time to pick up our packets and putz around in our luxurious accommodations, setting up the bikes and getting in a little swim in the lake.  After all was said and done and the German finally arrived we ate dinner and settled in for a good night's sleep.

Upon waking in the morning we noticed it was decidedly misty outside and looking at the Lake we saw that there was a TON of fog sitting over the water.   Not thinking much of it at the time (who thinks a lot at 6am, not me!) we got on our bikes and rode over to transition area to begin setting up for the day; put on the wetsuits and headed into the water to get warmed up for the race.  After a while it was clear that there was no way to see buoys if the race started on time and accordingly, the RD pushed the start back a bit to see if it would clear.  We continued to flop around in the water a bit before the RD came on and said they were going to delay the start until 8am and if the fog was still there the swim would likely be nixed.  So we got out of the water to stand around and then once they actually said they'd cancel the swim and it'd be a bike/run (oh joy!) we headed over to take off the wetsuits and get ready to ride.  At this point, everybody was blaming me for being a jinx and I can't say I blame them!

Transition 1 in :55


So they gathered us in wave order and let us run to transition from the Lake in groups of 10 or so.  I elbowed my way past John just to make sure he knew where he stood in the scheme of things and ran towards my bike, put on my shoes (we had already put on helmets/shades/etc), grab my bike and head onto the roads.

Bike 56 miles in 2:16:15 (4th), ~24.7 mph


As I headed out on the bike, I was thinking several things.  Those included but were not limited to:

"Why the F can't I get a swim in a race this year (Cool Breeze does not count)??!!"

"Blisters are stupid."

"This is going to be an interesting bike ride with all of us starting together."

The last was the most relevant during the bike portion as everyone headed out basically together.  I believe I started the bike in 3rd place (ish, since it was a TT start) and just started putting out my steady watt target for the day.  I eventually made my way up to the front of the race and "led" for a while before being passed by the various people I had started with.  I was rolling pretty fast through the first 10-15 miles (~25.5ish mph avg) and the "group" of 10 or so was all together.  The cool thing about started in this format was that it felt very much like what I imagine the Pros feel like at bigger races.  There was a legal draft paceline going on for most of the day on the bike and there is a definite benefit to legal drafting.  Benefit in the sense that if you're in the back end of the "train" your watts are lower (5-7%) but you're forced to ride other people's race.  I think I would have biked a little faster had I been solo the whole time as there was one long section (7-10) miles where I was below goal watts, but that's something I'm just saying and have no way of actually backing that up with any real truths.  Most of the things I say are like that actually...

We continued on our merry way and I continued to hydrate and stuff gels into my face and we eventually made it to the out and back section.  At this point, Tom Clifford had just passed me and at the turnaround I saw that our "group" was still very much intact.  It was also fun to see everyone behind us and see how everyone looked.  After a bit a passed Tom as he ate something to re-take the "lead" and we got back out on the main road and chugged along the bumpy, slightly uphill, headwind section of the bike route.  At some point, a guy on a road bike with clip ons passed me looking like he was riding as hard as he could.  He was going pretty fast and the first thing I thought was "there's no way this guy is for real!" (turns out I was wrong haha!)  So he took the effective "lead" for a while before Kit Phillips and another guy passed and put a slightly larger-than-normal gap on me.  They were riding pretty hard and I had been steadily raising my watts a hair so I let them go do their own thing.  As we approached the last 5ish miles of the bike I looked behind and realized there was a significant gap from me to the next racer.  As I rode in to transition I unstrapped my shoes and dismounted nice and smooth.

Transition 2 in 1:24

I had made the decision prior to the race to use "real" laces instead of Yankz and thereby sacrificed all the time I had gained on the bike while bent over tying my shoes.  I swapped out my gel flasks, put on my visor and headed out on the run course.

Run 13.1 miles in 1:25:52 (4th), 6:33/mi


As I started the run course, my foot was definitely uncomfortable.  My stride had a very slight hitch in it but it wasn't overwhelming so I felt like I could press on without any long-term damage.  Luckily I was correct as the pain level was "manageable" throughout the run and never got worse.  My first couple of miles were relatively quick and I felt...just ok.  At NOLA I was clicking off fast miles and felt like I was running along on a training run but at WL I was definitely working a little bit harder for similar paces.  Around mile 2 my left hamstring decided to seize up a bit so I stopped to stretch both of them out, slightly worried that my day would be over at that point but luckily my overly dramatic thoughts proved to be incorrect and I got back on the road but kept the pace a litttttle slower just to make sure my problems had been stretched out of the ol' legs.

My pace through the first half of the run stayed pretty decent but I could tell that my run time was not going to be nearly as surprising as NOLA's was; I definitely didn't feel at my best but had some good carrots in front of me in the form of Kit Phillips and Mark Carey.  I managed to catch Kit right after the turnaround and ran behind him for a while before passing him.  Unfortunately my lower quad muscles decided that the faster pace was not to their liking and started to give off some warning signs so I slowed and Kit returned the favor.  From this point on it was pretty much just about managing pace so as to not slow down too much but also not go so fast that my legs wouldn't cramp.  I also just couldn't go very fast period, so my excuse to prevent cramping is kind of silly.  At mile 12.5 the guy that came in second (road bike guy actually!! awesome) flew by me doing about 100mph and I tried to latch onto his pace since I had been slowly catching Kit/Mark in the hopes that he could drag me up to them but after about 2 or 300 yards it was just too much and I resigned myself to trotting in towards the finish line.

Finished 5th OA, which was both good and bad at the same time.

The race itself was sort of bittersweet.  Bitter in the sense that I didn't get to swim (AGAIN) and I think my placing would have been a bit higher as a consequence (I think I'm a better swimmer than a couple of the guys ahead of me and I'd be willing to bet a couple of them wouldn't have biked as fast had it been more of a solo venture) and because I didn't run as well as I did at NOLA.  Sweet in the sense that I still ran a 1:25:high despite being semi-injured and not feeling 100% and it shows continual improvement, which is all I'm really looking for right now.

At this point, I won't be racing again for another month (word to the wise: everyone doing Latta should start to get worried because since I'm signed up they will probably cancel the swim for some reason!!) so after I allow my foot to heal properly I can get back into the exciting daily grind of banging out some awesome training.  In a couple of weeks I also plan to do some of the NC State Cycling championship races (crit/TT/RR) so that will be a nice diversion.  Big thanks to Bob and Melissa (and Paul at Winskins) for getting my new kit ready in a short amount of time and just for being awesome!

May Day Biathlon-ing

S - 14,100 yards
B - 184.9 miles
R - 47.9 miles

Time - 18.78 hours

This week brought with it the first batch of real humidity and I definitely suffered a little bit consequently.  I had to bail halfway through a threshold run workout on Wednesday since my PRE was so much higher than my actual pace would suggest it just didn't seem worth it.  Once we moved into Thursday though the weather seemed to realize how annoying it was being and cooled off a bit.  Although it wasn't so much the heat, it was the humidity.  Every year this seems to come as some sort of surprise to me; it's going to get humid and hot and I asked for it all winter!

Not a lot to mention about the swims; I've been a little inconsistent lately but that's primarily due to racing (taper/race/recovery) and I did miss a swim on Saturday since the MAC was closed but made up for a bit with my first real OWS of the season on Sunday with the North Crew.  It was also my first longer swim in a wetsuit since Triple-T last year and with White Lake traditionally being wetsuit legal that's definitely good to get in a swim with your body condom on before actually racing!  Otherwise it can feel really terrible...

Cycling was good this week; not too many exciting things to report (which is so different than normal!!) but I felt a little flat all week for no good reason other than the fact that it was a little warm.  It worried me a bit heading into the race on Sunday since I knew the course would be fairly challenging.  Luckily it didn't seem to be an issue.

Besides the previously mentioned middle-of-the-run meltdown I felt pretty good most of the week.  A little sore and crampy but I think since I got hot I haven't been hydrating quite as well and that showed up a bit during a couple of runs.

Morganton May Day Biathlon Race Report
1st OA, no course record

Brian suggested I do this race back in January and it seemed like a great idea since it was close and cheap (only 30 bucks!) and they offered prize money for placing and a big prize if you broke the course record (set back in 1992 by one of the best duathletes/triathletes of the 90s Jay Curwen).

Woke up Sunday morning feeling super tired as I didn't get much sleep the night before but that was nothing a little Dunking Donuts couldn't fix.  Made the relatively quick drive to the race site where I signed up, set up my bike and went for a warm-up run with a couple of efforts at or around LT pace to activate that system and get the blood moving.  I felt pretty awesome on this run actually - however brief - and was exciting about trying to go run a fast 5k.

As an aside, my previous open 5k best (so not including sprint tris where the course is always in question!) was a 17:27 I believe, back in August of 2008 at the Greekfest 5k.  I consider this biathlon 5k to be an "open" 5k since it was first and since I didn't hold back (knowingly anyway).  I did notice that Sonni and Jay were both at the race, so that was two "known" competitors that I hoped would galvanize some fast times.

5k - 16:32 - 1st, 5:19 avg

Lined up on the front and started off pretty quick.  One guy jumped out really fast immediately with another guy chasing (the "other" guy was obviously out of his element...) so I settled in and temporarily led a "chase" pack about 10m behind the frontrunner.  Within a quarter mile I was passed by two guys and setttled in behind them to work on my already excellent drafting skillz.  Just before mile 1 a shorter guy (ended up coming in 2nd) created a gap in front of the dude in front of me so I decided to bridge and caught him at about mile 1, which we went through in 5:04.  There was a long, gradual downhill after that and I continued to sit behind 2nd place guy and felt very in control for the next 800m or so.  Just before mile 2 on a slight incline I decided to back off the pace a bit just to make sure I still felt "comfortable" and ended up losing my pacing buddy just at mile 2, which we passed in 5:13ish.  I tried to hold a steady effort level and mile 2-3 involved some effort level so my pace slowed a bit as a consequence.  I still felt strong and smooth and went through the mile about 100-150m behind 2nd place guy in 5:33ish.  At that point it was mostly flat to the finish and I held 5:11ish pace through the finish line for a 16:32.5 official time.  Obviously, huge PR in the 5k with no real speed-specific work.  Very encouraging stuff!

Transition - 1:02 (unofficial since I just hit my lap button and there were no mats to cross)

I was first across the line in terms of biathl(etes?) and made my way to my bike.  Unfortunately I had put my bike in an awkward place not knowing the layout of run in/bike out so that was a silly mistake.  Put on my helmet and bike shoes and made my way out of the parking lot

Bike 19.3 mi - 47:48 - 1st, 24.2 mph


Headed out on the bike hot on the tails of the police car and the first part of the bike was relatively flat.  I was definitely tired but not overly so and was pumped about how fast I had been able to run on a course that was actually a 5k (3.12 miles!) so I was riding pretty hard initially.  I eventually managed to settle in and put out some power over the rolling course.  There were several climbs where I shifted into the small ring and one big one up to a dam that was pretty awesome.  To the left was the water and 100ft down to the right was where I had just ridden.  Pretty cool.  The course was quite challenging but not in a way to disrupt the rhythm.  I was able to hold good speed over the top of hills and power over the shorter ones.  There were relatively few "flat" sections but I was moving well and pushing at the burn point without blowing up (yet).  There were never any other racers in sight behind me so it was somewhat hard to stay motivated to push hard.  I knew that, barring catastrophe or some ridiculous cyclist catching me, I was likely going to win but I still hoped to sniff the course record so I was able to mentally overcome my body telling me to slow down.  As I got closer to the finish I realized I wasn't going to be close to the CR (turns out, later in the same year he set the record Jay Curwen went 3:47ish at the Gulf Coast Half...disgusting!) but still rode strong and crossed the finish line with 1st place well in hand.

Full Results Here



All in all, this was a really fun event.  An interesting format that made for a great VO2 max workout and a chance to see how fast I could go off relatively little to no "go-fast" training.  I've now had a painful blister re-emerge after it went away post NOLA so I'm a little discouraged by that and hoping it doesn't affect White Lake on Saturday.

With the way the weather is looking for White Lake we may see some fast times, especially on the run.  While I can't hope to PB every time in my 70.3s, I'd love to this weekend for sure.  The swim is always slow there (at least for me) so if I swim 30mins I'll be (relatively) pleased; on the bike I'll be able to ride much steadier than NOLA and so hopefully that will net, if not a faster time, a smoother ride and therefore less strain on my legs.  I'm going to try and take the run out a bit slower than in New Orleans but depending on how the race shakes out I may not be able to do that.  This will certainly feel more like a "race" than New Orleans and we have a big, fun crowd heading over so it'll be a really fun weekend (as long as my stupid foot cooperates!!)

Recovery

S - 8600 yards
B - 199 miles
R - 24.5 miles

Time - 15.22 hours

So the name of the game this week - at least in the early part - was to make sure I was adequately recovered from the tough "workout" last Sunday.  Each time I've read race reports about the race (James McCurdy - fastest amateur and M25-29, AJ Baucco - 3rd 25-29) from people that were/are faster than me I've gotten to relive the race and feel good about my performance.  While I wasn't as fast as those guys (although I was close), I did run faster than both and feel good about how close I was to the "top" after just 3 solid months of training. I think had the swim been included I would have moved up at least one, perhaps two spots in my AG (I did a little stalking of previous results for those ahead of me and saw some interesting swim times; obviously it's tough to get a true picture of a person's swimming ability but it gives you a decent idea) so that's encouraging.

I didn't swim until Wednesday and felt pretty rough (hadn't swam since last Wednesday since the swim was nixed at NOLA) and through the rest of my swims I felt slow.  The lack of frequency really seems to be manifested when I start swimming regularly so hopefully that will abate once I get back to my normal schedule.

Cycling was good this week; I felt like with the taper/race/recovery I got a little shot in the arm when it came to my bike fitness.  When I told this to Coach Brian he said it likely meant that my taper for future big races needed to be a bit longer, which makes sense.  It's all just one big learning experience.  I had a tough (and long) bike workout on Sunday but managed to get through it without any real issues.

Running was good, not a lot of mileage but the runs felt nice.  I definitely felt recovered by Wednesday and my first run of the week wasn't until Thursday so that was nice.

The biggest non-workout related thing I did this week was to go to the Jimmy Buffet concert on Thursday.  While something like that is definitely not part of my normal "schedule" it was the perfect week to tailgate/concert for 8+ hours and I got to go and try and be social, which is something I almost never do.  So I had a good time and while my workouts the next day were a bit of a drag I managed just fine.

Next weekend is the Morganton Biathlon which will, unintentionally of course, be my second "duathlon" of the year.  The drive is short and the race was suggested to me by Coach so I'm excited to partake!

New Orleans 69.1

S - 6,750 yards
B - 106.1 miles
R - 27.5 miles

Time - 9.89 hours

Whew, this week was easy!  Well, until you consider the pain that Sunday brought with it...

Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal days for me this week since my "taper" didn't start until Wednesday.  Normal (albeit shorter) swim with the group on Monday then a normal run Tuesday morning and a bike ride with some short (but sweet) intervals.  Starting Wednesday my volume reduced dramatically in prep for the race on Sunday.  Thursday was a (glorious) 11 hour travel day and Friday/Saturday workouts were very short and most of my accomplishments revolved around making sure I was race ready from a logistical standpoint.

New Orleans 70.3 Duathlon


Well, there's nothing quite like rolling into transition area to the first big "A" race of the year and hearing over the loudspeakers that "Due to high winds and inability to set up the course the swim has been canceled this year and we're doing a duathlon of bike + run!"  Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed.  But instead of whining about how much work I've done on the swim and how I was hoping to show some progress (wait, I did just whine...oh well) you've got to adapt to the new situation and move on; which is what I tried to do.  It seemed like a lot of people were getting bent out of shape, but from looking at the water and seeing how windy it was in transition I can't say I WANTED to jump in the water.

So the day really began with just sitting down and waiting.  Luckily I ran into Tara Flint in transition so I had someone to hang out with while we both waited for our wave starts.  She may be a member of the "evil" Triangle Multisports team but luckily (for her) we went to college and raced bikes together so it was ok to hang out and chit chat.

Bike 56 miles in 2:16:52 (24.55mph), 4th fastest 25-29
Relatively quickly the M25-29 wave was called to the "start" so I saddled up and joined the line.  It was actually relatively chilly since the sun hadn't really warmed things up yet and the wind was pretty stiff so I was eager to get on the bike and start working.  They were starting groups of two every two seconds so my turn came up and away I went.  The course started in a westerly direction down Lakeshore Dr (with the wind) so the first 3-4 miles were quite fast to the turnaround point.  It was EXCEPTIONALLY crowded and I was a little over my wattage goals for most of the ride as a consequence.  After the turnaround we headed back down Lakeshore and dead into the wind (this road is completely unprotected from the lake and the wind was really, really strong here), which would be a common theme for the next ~20+ miles or so.  The course was definitely more crowded this year and there were some definite "packs" that had formed.  It wasn't so much a drafting pack but at times there were maybe 6 passes happening at once so on several occasions I had to swing a little wider than I normally would deem "safe" to complete the pass.

Well, time went on and I continued my way towards the first turnaround spot (the course was shaped like a "Y") down in Venetian Isles.  At this point I was getting slightly uncomfortable in one specific area so I was looking forward to the opportunity to stand up on the pedals out of the 180 degree turn (since unless I have to I try to stay in aero position as much as possible...for better or for worse).  Made the turn and had a super awesome tailwind for the next bunch of miles.  Along this stretch I was averaging 26+ mph and I took the time to make sure I was caught up on gels and water.  Made the right turn onto the other part of the "Y" and unfortunately back into the wind.  This slog continued for a while before hitting the final turnaround and heading back with a tailwind for good.

At about mile 40 I began to feel a bit tired but knew I had it in me to finish off strong and so continued to push and raise my average speed all the way back down Haynes Blvd and closer to the Lakefront area.  Without much interesting to report I took my feet out of my bike shoes and headed into transition.

For the sake of showing how windy it was, here are my 7 mile bike split avg speeds:

23.9 (mph), 21.4, 23.4, 21.8, 26.0, 26.3, 27.1, 27.7

Transition "2" in 1:33


We had a slightly longer run into (or rather, around) transition this year.  I made my way around, put my bike back and grabbed one of my gel flasks.  Then put on my shoes, took my helmet off and grabbed my visor before heading out onto the run course.

Run 13.1 miles in 1:21:32 (6:13/mi), 4th fastest 25-29


Heading out onto the run I had mixed feelings.  Given my time and the wind, I figured I may have ridden too hard to run fast but I stayed (pretty closely) within my wattage targets so I was optimistic.  The weather was nice too, albeit a bit warm.  Lots of sun and a stiff breeze made it feel cooler than it was last year.  I had set my garmin to show "current lap time" and "current lap avg pace'' (on 1 mile laps) so I could properly pace myself or know if I was slowing down too much.  My first mile was a bit fast but I kept trying to slow down (and failing!).  The first couple of miles wound around the Lakeshore area before heading into City Park at mile 4ish.  The aid stations were incredible this year, with volunteers all over the place trying to pass out water/perform drink/coke/sponges etc.  At every aid station until my flask ran out I took a hit of gel and a ltitle water.  I actually carried the flask in my hand the whole time as opposed to in my pocket as in days gone by just so I'd be sure to take in the calories and not "forget."  I kept rattling off miles that were much faster than I thought I could run but I didn't feel like I was working overly hard and I felt I could maintain pace so I just kept going.  I went through 5k in just a hair over 18 minutes and through 7.5ish miles my pace was quite similar (a bit slower, but only because I didn't have that rogue first fast mile in there).  Once out of city park it became a mental game as at this point I was definitely working hard.  There weren't as many people out on the roads (spectators or participants) so it was a bit more of a lonely affair.  Once onto Esplanade I knew I was getting close but that road is so miserable (last real road but it's completely flat and straight so you can see ALL the way down! And the road surface is terrible) that I was starting to doubt.  I did slow down a little bit in the 2.5 miles on Esplanade but I was experiencing some minor cramping in my calves (where a muscle would fire like it was going to cramp but then subside) so I was a bit worried and when that happened I slowed down for a bit before picking it back up.

Once I turned onto Decatur I finally let myself realize that I was going to set a ridiculous PR for the 70.3 (errr, 69.2) half marathon.  Last year at New Orleans I ran just a hair over 1:32 so to run this fast was a revelation for me.  It just goes to show that all the work I've been putting in has been paying off!  Very exciting stuff.

Mile Splits
5:55 - 6:04 - 6:10 - 6:14 - 6:09 - 6:05 - 6:13 -
6:12 - 6:09 - 6:14 - 6:18 - 6:25 - 6:23 - 5:58 avg for .18 miles

To race like that and come in 5th place in my AG just goes to show how many fast people showed up to race today.  I can't be disappointed with that.  Not that I was, I was just surprised.  It's hard to even say how I feel about that run.  It was SUCH a huge breakthrough.  In the back of my head I dreamed about running 1:24-1:25 so to blow the doors off that was just incredibly surprising.  Not all races can go this well, of course, but knowing that adding on a relatively slow swim + t1 (31:30 ish) puts me in ~4:10 half ironman shape (on a similar course to NOLA of course) is very inspiring.

I'm very pleased with the direction Brian seems to be pointing me!

One week to go...

S - 19,200 yards
B - 253.8 miles
R - 52.1 miles

Time - 24.01 hrs

Swim sets were long and rather boring this week, I can't lie.  The swim workouts changed a bit in the past two weeks to longer, steadier intervals as opposed to the high-intensity intervals I had been doing.  I'm no expert, but  I believe the intention was more specific prep work for NOLA next Sunday.  As usual, I only swam 4 times this week so 19k+ yards is quite a good average swim distance for each workout.  3 of 5000+ this week.  Hooray swimming!

The best part about biking this week was the fact that most of it was on my new P3.  Having ridden a rickety old road bike for the past 3 months switching to a high-end tri bike was like a new epiphany.  It is the cat's meow, you might say.  It is close to being worth as much as my car (thankfully, vehicular depreciation hasn't gotten that far yet for the ol' Mazda).  Needless to say, I'm kind of into it.  Considering that in the past 12 or 13 weeks I've spent an average of 10+ hours/week on my bike I definitely spend more time with it than with any other person.  Don't you judge me!

Highest mileage totals so far this year on the run, which is nice.  I feel as though I knocked my two run workouts [relatively] out of the park this week, so that's nice.  The long run included some pretty serious quality, fast running in the middle of it so I feel pretty well prepared for New Orleans next Sunday.

So that begins the end, in which I talk about New Orleans 70.3 that is next Sunday.  A lot of people (myself included) are probably expecting me to go fairly quick since I've been training so much but the problem is that it takes a LONG time to get really fast.  There is no shortcut.  I'm certainly better across all three sports than I was last year.  There is no doubt about that.  Unfortunately, it's only been 3 months of solid training.  I've been extremely consistent; haven't missed hardly any workouts and have been doing (almost) everything right (let's not talk about my diet, just yet).  So, what happens Sunday will happen no matter what.  I'd certainly like to win my AG, but I know there's at least one very fast 25-29er that will be there on race day.  I'd love to PR, which would give me some positive reinforcements.  Most of all, I just want to run fast.  As opposed to people saying "damn" when I pass them on the bike, I'd like them to be impressed with how fast I'm running!

Dare to dream!

Another week bites the dust!

S - 16,100 yds
B - 259.9 mi
R - 50.9 mi


Time - 24.7 hours


The countdown has officially begun.  For what, I'm not sure but for the short-term countdown lets say that NOLA is the destination.  13 days from today I'll be toeing the line on the beach waiting to run into the gloriously green and used-to-be-gross-but-allegedly-isn't-anymore Lake Ponchartrain!  On that note, let's dive into this weekly recap!!


There was some super totally awesome consistency on the water front this week, something I like repeating just as much as you enjoy reading! (well, I probably enjoy repeating it more than you enjoy reading if I'm going to be perfectly honest...) The most "interesting" workout I had was Wednesday where the "main" set included 6x100 all out on 4 minutes.  So basically I'd do a 100 as fast as I could then wait on the wall for 10-15 seconds and then swim a nice, extremely easy, 50 yards before waiting for the 4 minutes to be up so I could do it again.  With a push off the wall for all but the last one (I dove but it wasn't the best dive...) I managed to sprint my way to 1:03, 1:02, 1:02, 1:02, 1:02, 1:00.  Obviously, speed is a limiter for me.  I just can't turn my arms over much faster to get below 1 minute!  Melissa was teaching me some "tricks of the trade" to use and those helped (stuff I had never known before like when pushing off the wall after a turn, wait to take a breath until the second stroke so you ride the "wake" created by your push) but I just can't go that much faster than 1:02!!  Alas


As you can tell from reading, lots of miles on the bike this week.  Unfortunately, I am still on the road bike (although this will be my last full week on the ol' steed!! Yay!) and I didn't put it back together properly after riding Andrew's bike for a week so it was making a lot of noise and was generally unhappy at me most of the week.  I didn't keep training logs in college, but they likely would have shown a lot of inconsistency.  I can't even take a rough guess of how many miles I put in during my 4 years (a good bit freshman year, more sophomore year, next to none junior year, and a good bit senior year) but considering that in the past 12 weeks I've logged 2,600 miles (all but 1 week on the road bike) I'd say my consistency has put those years to shame.  While it's been creaking and rattling and groaning a lot more than usual it's still going strong!  8 yeras of abuse and it can still hang with the best.  That being said, I cannot WAIT to get on my P3!


I finally managed to notch 50+ miles this week, which was due to a couple of factors.  One of those was that I had about 10 more minutes on my schedule this week and I also never had a day where I ran "slow."  I've been inching up towards 50 miles for a while now (very slight increases in time on the schedule but sometimes I run slower/faster) so it's nice to finally break that barrier.  I'm most proud of the fact that I did my long run (110 minutes and 15+ miles!) on the treadmill!  The weather was awful Wednesday morning and I had to put on my man shoes and take a big sip from my glass of Harden the F*** Up but I made my way through the run with relative ease.


Only 2 more weeks until NOLA!! Some key things to think about in terms of expectations that Brian told me:

• I expect you to go out and race a smart race, make smart decisions, pace properly, make sure you are thinking 10-45min down the road when it comes to fueling, think about maintaining pace through the 5-10mile points on the run then letting it hang out on the last 5k on the run when it comes to pacing and realize that the bike ride no matter how fast isn't a good ride unless you run well off of it.  Other then that, I'm a big believer in controlling what you can control and at the end of the day the chips lie where they lie.
• But really it's all about making smart decisions and controlling what you can that gives you the best chance for success, however you and I define it.
• 8 weeks of solid training doesn't make one an uber fast guy.  See how it is in 80 weeks.

I placed the emphasis on the first bullet point.  After last year, I need to take it to heart! I think thoughts like that can help anyone, not just me.  Take heed readers.  But not too much if you're in my AG.

Sprint

S - 17,625 yards - 5:13:10 hrs
B - 218.8 miles - 10:56:08 hrs
R - 47.1 miles - 5:37:51 hrs

Total - 21.79 hours

Not much exciting to report on the swimming front this week.  Ashley and I swam together a couple of times and had good workouts on Thursday and Saturday but the rest was just a little of the same things I've been saying this year: consistent progression.  Saturday's main set consisted of an 8x400 and I was swimming those at a faster pace than my 500 yard TT from one year ago.  Not too shabby.  It's also important to note how up and down swimming has been for me lately. Two Saturdays ago I could barely manage 1:20/100 yd pace during some longer intervals and 2 weeks later boom goes the dynamite.  Lots of ups and downs with this sort of training volume.

The biking was the big "mental hurdle" this week.  Looking at my schedule when I received it last Sunday I saw several important things

Tuesday: anaerobic power test, 2 hours total ride
Thursday: 2.5 hrs aerobic
Friday: aerobic threshold power test (30 minute time trial), 2 hrs total ride
Saturday: 2.5 hrs aerobic
Sunday: Cool Breeze Triathlon

Ok, the whole week was "important."  That's a lot of hard riding.  So for about 25-30/220 miles this week I was riding pretty much as hard as I could.  I was quite happy with my 30min TT on Friday.  Not necessarily with the results (wattage numbers), but the fact that I put it more power throughout the 30 minutes and that I did it after 2 days of riding, a long run with a 30min progressive tempo on Wednesday and a run with a fartlek/interval workout on Friday morning.  It's also the first 30min TT I've done before so just making it through one of those is a mental butt-kicking.  Anyway, the short story of my cycling this week was that it was difficult.  I was pretty tired in the legs on Saturday so my expectations were quite low for the bike on Sunday.

Running was consistent again, not much different to report on that front.  The long run switched to being a longer, progressive effort in the middle so that was fun (it wasn't).  I executed pretty well though and managed to string together some good runs overall this week, including Cool Breeze's run split.

Without further ado

Cool Breeze Triathlon - 6th OA, 4th "open"

Swim (250 yards) - 3:10, 9th

Considering I was seeded 8th based on my submitted swim time (1:15), I'd say this wasn't too bad at all.  The fastest swim was 2:59 so the top 10 were only separated by 12 seconds.  The start was rather hectic and Setup really pulled up a botch in terms of the swim start.  There was virtually no warning for when the race started and I was just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.  I started 10 seconds behind Mason and made up a bit of time on him in the first 50 yards and then held a steady gap the rest of the swim.  I figure the climb out and run to mat takes about 8-11 seconds so I was swimming at roughly 1:11-1:12/100 yard pace which makes sense.  I had set a long sleeve jersey on the bleachers so I began putting that out as I headed out the door, where I was greeted by a freezing cold blast of air (it was 38-39 degrees and misty at this point...) and ran across the mat into transition.

Transition - 1:02

I felt like I didn't waste any time going through here but it took me a little while standing still to get my jersey fully on; I had put the gloves in the pockets so I didn't bother with those just yet.  I put on my shoes and helmet and headed out onto the bike.

Bike 12.6mi - 34:08, 17th

Wow.  17th fastest bike split.  I would never have guessed that.  In all honesty going in, despite the fact that I knew I was tired, I expected to have a 30-31 minute bike split on this course (all else being equal, which of course it never is...).  Last year I was the fastest split (by 3 seconds over Capets) in 31:31 so the course was definitely slower this year (fastest this year was 32:31, Capets was 2nd in 32:32) although I wouldn't have guessed a full minute slower.  Be that as it may, I made my way out on the bike course just behind Mason and settled in for a cold, windy race on the bike.  I let Mason lead for a little while and at the 10 minute mark came around him to instigate a little back and forth action to motivate and speed up the both of us.  Just after I went around him we made a right turn into the wind and started a climb, so I shifted down into my little ring.  Unfortunately, the chain fell off to the inside.  Most of the time I can shift the chain back on but that was not the case today.  I messed around shifting for a bit then resigned myself to getting off the bike and manually putting the chain back in the big ring.  I also didn't realize until after the race but my derailleur cage was rubbing on the disc cover in my two largest rear sprockets (more drag, great).  I got back on my bike but at this point Mason was a long ways up the road and had become a black dot instead of a person.  I meandered on through the rest of the bike course, still putting out a decent effort but at this point my motivation was gone and I was starting to get cold from my time standing still in the cold wind.  As I made my way back toward the business park I dropped the chain again shifting into the small ring (didn't learn my lesson the first time) but luckily this time I was able to shift back into gear.  Coming back into transition I was contemplating just dropped out to save myself the embarrassment of a bad result so I got off my bike casually (I probably looked like a moron as I couldn't really decide what to do and crossed the timing mat. BLAH

Transition - 1:09

I definitely thought it was MUCH slower than this so I guess I can't complain about my own dumb-ness too much.  I trotted over to my bike (in my shoes, since I hadn't taken them off on the lead in to T2) and took off my cycling shoes to put on my running shoes, grabbed my number and took off my helmet before heading out onto the run course.

Run 5k - 17:51, 11th

So 11th might sound a little slow, but given that 5 guys only did 1 lap (and thereby took splits 1-5 to their disqualification), my run was actually the 6th fastest.  Sidenote, how is it that zero women did 1 lap but 5 men did?  Are they that much dumber than women?  Don't answer.  I made my way out onto Verhoeff rode and began the sharp descent to the turnaround (2 loop out/back course this year).  I was a good ways behind Mason at this point and figured some other people were technically ahead of me but I was running okay so at the turnaround I headed back up the sharp descent that had magically become a difficult uphill.  Made my way through the crowds and to the more gradual part of the road.  This whole section was a false flat and also into the wind.  I was trotting along pretty nicely and made my way to the next turnaround and started on the net downhill/tailwind section.  That felt MUCH nicer.  I was beginning to be able to feel my feet at this point so I was enjoying myself a little bit, convincing myself that I was probably running 4 minute miles but luckily, since I wasn't wearing a watch, didn't have to verify that assumption.  Went past the crowds to the sharp downhill, turned around and made my way back on the second loop.  Ran through the tough section to the last turnaround and then cut off the road to follow the course to the finish line.

I left before knowing the actual results so before I actually found out what they were I was pretty uninterested in the actual results.  I knew I had a good swim as I believed I closed the gap a bit on Mason, who is a very good swimmer.  I assumed my bike would be terrible, but I didn't feel that bad and my watts were good so I knew that the split would be a combination of my mishaps and the fact that I was on a borrowed bike and hadn't ridden a tri bike for more than 6 days in the past 5 months.  I was happy with my run as I feel like I held a good effort level and negative split the 2 loops.  Upon seeing the results, I was pretty accurate.  Not the best performance but considering I had ~19 hours of training including two bike power tests, 180+ miles on the bike, two run workouts, 40+ miles of running, and four swim workouts and 16k+ yards in me as of Saturday evening I was not surprised.

I expected to place better but expectations and reality are often quite different ;)

Also, Navy brought in a bunch of ringers.  That was kind of weird and random.  Good job to all who manned up and raced out there today.  Not a great day for racing (or being outside) at all!

Moving on!